A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection • Hacker News Board

Re: A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection

#31

Post by crististm » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 8:13 AM UTC

martinced wrote: post #21

You've gat to love the comment on TFA saying something like: "It doesn't matter that it can be broken by experienced crackers, it's just to keep the honest man honest" . That is so wrong: all it takes is that each one of the warez group builds one like this and then they can rip anything "big media" produces and then put it on torrent or underground movie-sharing networks. (oh the memories taking my bycicle when I wa…

The snicker net will still work when the Internet police will come. It will be lower bandwidth (or higher depending on the size of the exchanged HDDs :), high latency but will work.

Re: A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection

#32

Post by duaneb » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 8:59 AM UTC

dbcooper wrote: post #27

Now there is also the Cinavia analogue audio watermarking system for protecting content, which seems to be quite robust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinavia Slysoft intends to release a product that negates it, but I am unaware of any success so far. There have been work-arounds for the PS3 though. The doom9 forum thread can be a good place to read about it. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=155777

That doesn't prevent ripping, does it? Just playing back burned discs. I don't know anyone who burns the movies they download onto DVDs (or whatever) before watching them.

Re: A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection

#33

Post by icebraining » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 10:44 AM UTC

tankenmate wrote: post #13

noonespecial wrote: post #5

DRM doesn't have to work technically. You can just make the whole thing ROT13 and then pass a law that its illegal to unscramble it. The technical part isn't the part that matters.

If decryptors are criminal then only criminals will have decryptors. The legal side of things isn't going to bother the commercial rippers one single bit; they'll just stream from somewhere that hasn't signed up to the Berne convention. Burma is close to both Thailand and Bangladesh no? You want to buy a cheap copy of movie mister? Top quality! Work in US and EU.

The US has a fairly generous aid program to Burma/Myanmar. How much crackdown on copyright infringement do you think Obama's $170 million can buy?

Re: A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection

#34

Post by Daiz » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 12:30 PM UTC

bediger4000 wrote: post #26

Daiz wrote: post #6

Why HDCP is still used despite being utterly broken is simply the fact that it gives media corporations 'control'. You know those anti-circumvention laws for DRM? Yeah. Even DVDs still ship with CSS for this reason - when RealNetworks released RealDVD, their DVD ripping program (which wasn't even particularly good or useful, as it produced Real Media files with Real's own DRM included ), they were sued by DVD Copy Co…

I think you're correct about 'control', but that begs a question: Why is control that important? It's not control for the sake of generating money, they'd probably make more money, in a bigger industry, if they didn't exert such fine-grained control. Is it that much fun to dictate popular culture, or is something else going on behind the scenes, other than hookers and blow?

>Why is control that important?

It's what they're used to - back before the internet existed, these middlemen pretty much had total control over what media people were exposed to. They were the gatekeepers of media. Then the internet came along, which has changed the way people get exposed to media dramatically. The gatekeepers hate it, because it takes away control from them, and they try their hardest to undo the effects of the internet with DRM, laws, etc. Of course, middlemen are still necessary even in the digital age, but a good middleman in this day and age is not a gatekeeper, but rather an enabler (for music, think Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Tunecore and so on for example).

Re: A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection

#35

Post by bbrian » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 7:18 PM UTC

mrb wrote: post #16

Adam said that an HDCP-stripper can generate a key on-the-fly, thereby making it impossible to revoke. Does such a device exist? It was my understanding that all HDCP-stripper available were using static keys (which have to be reprogrammed by the end-user with a new key in the event the key is revoked).

I didn't infer it exists from the article. HD Fury is the only stripper I know of, it's "Now supplied with mini USB connector for firmware updates." It's also pricey. I found it when looking for a way to use my DVI Cinema Display with my Apple TV (1g).

http://www.hdfury.com/

Re: A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection

#36

Post by koko775 » Wed, Feb 20, 2013, 4:46 AM UTC

cynicalkane wrote: post #30

koko775 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> DRM is popular not because it makes the possible impossible (not even the least technical people at the studios think this), but because it makes copying more expensive No, it exists because it's usually a contractual obligation for licensing the content for distribution to at least make a token effort to protect content. That's really the biggest reason. Source: I work at an entertainment company

The viewpoint from your corner of the world is wrong. The viewpoint from my corner is right. Of course both can't possibly be part of the whole story at the same time, that's ridiculous. Source: I work in my corner.

I have an insider's view of the industry, as well as an understanding of the interplay that happens between different target platforms, content providers, and the engineers implementing the actual streaming platform.

I have no need to lie nor any investment in being verifiably correct. My viewpoint is simply my own and carries its own validity according to however much people wish to believe me.